Finally, the Armenians of Qarabagh had a tradition of urging Russia
to overthrow Ebrahim Khalil, and the Armenians of Ganjeh were be-
lieved to have aided the Russians in the conquest of that khanate.^38
Therefore, the possibility existed that the Qarabaghi Armenians, once
mobilized to fight under the Russian aegis, might play an active role
in the forced abolition of Muslim rule in the khanate. (As matters
developed, the khan submitted. If there had been contingency plans
to use Armenians to overthrow the khan, no such action was in fact
taken.)
The deep impression that the conquest of Ganjeh, and later, Qara-
bagh made on the east Caucasian Muslims can be seen by the readi-
ness of Muslims in various khanates to believe that Russia planned
to inflict a similar fate upon them. For example, when Major-General
Zavalishin attempted to force the khan of Baku to submit in the
summer of 1805, there was a mass exodus of terrified Muslims from
the city. They fled again in September 1806, when Russian troops
approached once more. Shortly before that time, the inhabitants of
Derbent had been persuaded to overthrow their khan and surrender
to the Russians by deliberately planted rumors of the terrible fate
that awaited them unless they surrendered. In Qarabagh, rumors that
the Russians planned to exterminate the Muslim inhabitants found
wide acceptance in 1806 and 1810. By Tsitsianov's own admission,
the reason of the khan of Shakki refused to send 500 cavalry soldiers
to assist the Russians was not disloyalty but fear of a Russian attack
(which was not in fact contemplated at that time).^39 The general did
not pursue this line of thought or question whether his tactic of in-
timidation, which inspired such mistrust, made it more difficult to
obtain the khan's cooperation.
Of the remaining khanates, only Shirvan was taken without con-
quest. Mostafa, the khan, thought he might derive an advantage over
his rivals by siding with Russia, but Tsitsianov's usual unwillingness
to moderate his demands stiffened the khan's resistance. It took an
invasion by Russian troops to frighten the khan into signing a treaty
in 1805.^40 All the other khanates that were added to the Russian
Empire were taken by force: Qarabagh, Shakki, Baku, Qobbeh, and
Derbent in 1806; Talesh in 1813; and Yerevan and Nakhjavan in
- However, other factors influenced the stages of the annexation
process before the violent resolution. One of the most important of
these factors was the traditional pattern of domestic and external
power rivalries. Thus, even when rulers volunteered to become Rus-
sian vassals, they were not motivated by the admiration for Russian
civilization that Russian authorities ascribed to them. The khans of
(^86) Russia's Conquest of the Eastern Caucasus